Publications

Humanoid robots attract most of the attention, but many of the demonstrations are preprogrammed, remote-controlled or generated by AI. Physical AI, meaning machines that perceive, decide and act in the physical world, is already a market of about $18 billion, of which humanoids account for only $2–3 billion. The report explains why value will first come from specialized systems, describes the state of the technology and the positions of China, the United States, Europe and Japan, and lays out future scenarios and what executives should do today.

Les grands acteurs de l’IA promettent que ses bénéfices pour le climat dépasseront son empreinte. Cédric Villani et moi en doutons : l’usage quotidien des modèles concentre l’essentiel de l’énergie et de l’eau consommées, et la pression se concentre localement sur les réseaux électriques et les ressources en eau. L’IA aidera pourtant à s’adapter à un monde à +3 °C. Encore faut-il la mesurer : nous demandons des données comparables et auditables.

AI seems almost weightless to its users, but every model rests on an industrial backbone of minerals, manufacturing, electricity and water. The report examines three vulnerabilities that businesses have to take into account: environmental impacts, energy supply and the grid, and the choke points of compute infrastructure. It sets out the critical uncertainties for the future and strategic recommendations. The study is based on three months of work and more than 50 expert interviews.

Que se passe-t-il dans la tête de l’homme qui court depuis cinq jours, 360 kilomètres, 26 000 mètres de dénivelée ? Comment sont ses fibres, ses tendons ? Que perçoivent ses neurones de la réalité, du temps ? Albert Meige démêle les fils de ses souvenirs pour raconter ce voyage extraordinaire et le chemin qui l’y a conduit, livrant ses conseils utiles pour les coureurs ayant envie d’aller voir au-delà de leurs limites : nutrition, mental, navigation, équipement… Entrepreneur et passionné d’ultra-endurance en montagne, il explore dans Kilomètre 360 les limites du corps et les frontières de l’esprit.

AI has been used in research, development and innovation for a decade, and the arrival of generative AI and large language models has sped it up over the last two years. Yet its integration into R&D&I processes is still immature, especially where results must be error-free. The report looks at what AI can do at each step of the process, how to make its implementation succeed, the landscape of tools and providers, and future scenarios, and closes with six strategic actions. The study was carried out with LVMH, Avril, GRTgaz, CNRS and INRAE, from 40+ interviews and a survey of more than 200 companies and institutions.

ChatGPT is only the tip of a much larger generative AI iceberg. This report explains how AI became more human, what generative models can now do, and how they change the value of different kinds of human intelligence inside companies and beyond. It covers the impact on business, the value chain and competition, the limits and risks, and the critical uncertainties, up to the question of artificial general intelligence. Two interludes give the floor to an artist and a philosopher. The study combines in-depth research, an expert survey and interviews with players from across the AI ecosystem.

In January 2023, Laurent Alexandre was telling me that AI was dumb as a rock. Two months later, he had changed his mind. We explain how large language models work and the emergent properties that may lead to AGI. Three uncertainties make the future hard to predict, but risks and opportunities are already tangible. Companies that sense new developments early and respond fast will have an edge.

Tens days after its release, one of my daughters, tired of waiting for my help with her physics homework, asked ChatGPT instead, and got a flawless guidance. Written by me and proofread by an AI, this article explains what GPT is, how it is already disrupting business, and what its limits and risks are. My conclusion: AI will not replace you, but a person or an organization using AI will.

I co-wrote this article with an AI, after posting on LinkedIn an article entirely generated from a single prompt the day of ChatGPT’s release. It looks at how ChatGPT and AI are set to disrupt business, in the short and long term, and at the challenges of adoption, from data privacy to bias. My take: AI will augment humans rather than replace them. The follow-up, “My kids have replaced me with ChatGPT”, is written by a human.

Pour que le monde du travail ne devienne pas une dystopie, il faut former des entreprenants : des personnes capables de comprendre leur environnement, d’y saisir des opportunités et d’agir quand tout bouge. C’est ce que nous appelons l’esprit entrepreneur. À la demande de la ministre, nous avons évalué le plan PEPITE pour l’entrepreneuriat étudiant : le concept est validé, mais le dispositif doit changer d’échelle. Rapport établi avec Cristelle Gillard et Philippe Perrey.

Source : ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche

15 mai 2033 : Maya, 26 ans, ne cherche plus d’emploi. Elle accepte des « transferts », des missions proposées par une plateforme qui gère contrat et paiement. J’y imagine la convergence de trois tendances visibles dès 2016 : les « slashers », les réseaux sociaux professionnels dopés à l’intelligence artificielle, et des entreprises organisées en projets. Le travail y gagne en agilité, mais les inégalités se creusent.

Plume d’Or de l’Économie et du Droit 2018.

To innovate, companies must combine knowledge from outside their core business, ever faster. Finding it has never been so easy, thanks to new tools, nor so hard: the haystack keeps growing and the needle must be found ever more quickly. Drawing on some forty interviews with chief technology and innovation officers of companies such as Airbus, Danone, Total and Faurecia, we describe how these trends and the digital wave change innovation. Written with Jacques Schmitt.

Open innovation and crowdsourcing are among the hottest topics in strategy and management today. The concept of capturing ideas in a hub of collaboration, together with the outsourcing of tasks to a large group of people or community is a revolution that is rapidly changing business culture. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing explains how to use the power of ideas and people outside your organization to turbocharge your innovation.

In this thesis, I simulate inductive low-pressure plasmas with a one-dimensional particle-in-cell code including Monte Carlo collisions. The simulations confirm that electric double layers can form in current-free plasmas, producing a supersonic ion beam also measured experimentally. I then propose a hybrid model, much cheaper to compute, and use it to show that propagating double layers may form spontaneously in electronegative plasmas. Joint PhD from the Australian National University and Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse.